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How to Pass a Programming Interview

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Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#91

Post by toomuchtodo »

alistairSH wrote: post #82
jkarneges wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happened to a friend. He confirmed that pseudocode would be acceptable, but then as he was writing it out the interviewer got on him about not terminating lines with semicolons (I suppose the pseudocode looked C-ish). So yeah I'd say make this clear.

Ack. I'm not sure how I'd react to that. I interviewed quite a bit last year (on the hiring side). I was really surprised by the variation in pseudocode written by the candidates. Most wrote something JavaScript-like, a few stuck to mostly proper Java or C. But then one dumped a giant web of crazy on the board (but still made his point) and one wrote something that looked suspiciously like COBOL - still not sure if h…

> Ack. I'm not sure how I'd react to that.

Thank them for their time, leave, move on to next company.

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#92

Post by alistairSH »

ionforce wrote: post #30
alistairSH wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any reason an interviewer should care about syntax, etc? When I interview, I ask for psuedocode - I don't really care what language the interviewee uses, I do care that they can get their point across.

I've had people interview claiming to know X and then not code in X correctly. So... that's a red flag. We allow interviewees to pick their strongest language. But if you end up picking something that doesn't exist, well, you aren't earning yourself any points.

I ask questions about the language to determine if they know the language. Correct syntax isn't going to show me you understand prototypal inheritance.

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#93

Post by nice_byte »

kelvin0 wrote: post #14

What if designers had to go through a similar interview process? Here are some colors, please arrange them in palette groups that are color coordinated for a given visual effect? Why is red font on blue background bad, please justify? That would simply be hilarious.

You say this in jest, but I would expect a competent designer to be able to answer these (or similar) questions.

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#94

Post by pklausler »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #83
pklausler wrote: post #78

I hated this article. A good technical interview reveals an aptitude for programming or a lack of same, and can distinguish a true aptitude from an ability to fake it. I've been interviewing programmers for a very long time and I'm pretty good at avoiding "false positive" results with a few straightforward questions. If you have aptitude and talent, brush up on your algorithms and try to have fun with the interview.…

Care to mention these questions? Most companies are suffering HARD from false positives. I'm sure a lot of people would love to know what's working for you. Thanks!

Well, I'm not going to spill my current repertoire, but in short it's all about "programming in the small". Can you construct a precise Boolean predicate to test for a well-defined condition? Do you "get" pointers and recursion? Find sample problems in your own work.

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#95

Post by nrb »

quanticle wrote: post #57
ammon wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, I see where you are coming from (I actually love academic CS). But the VAST majority of the programming work out there does not require any Big-O analysis. It just does not. It's used as a tool in interviews to (essentially) look for rigor. The problem is that this harms people who are rigorous as hell in low-level details of JS and V8 (something I'd posit is actually more useful to many more companies), but neve…

But the VAST majority of the programming work out there does not require any Big-O analysis. Your point is simultaneously valid and irrelevant. The vast majority of programming doesn't involve any Big-O analysis. But if you can't do Big-O analysis, there are problems where you will be stuck. Your code will be running slowly and you won't know why, and all the micro-optimizations in the world can't make a O(n^2) algor…

You do not need to know parallel parking to pass a driving test, in Illinois and probably many other states.

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#97

Post by nice_byte »

quanticle wrote: post #84
nice_byte wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

findDupe isn't O(1), it's O(n) since it has to look at all the elements in the list.

It's O(1) space complexity but O(n) time complexity.

Oh sorry, that's right, I just assumed parent was referring to time.

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#98

Post by BinaryIdiot »

noonespecial wrote: post #8

Interviewing should now be part of most CS educations, if not its own three class/semester course. Its that weird, and that important.

Alternatively we could come up with a better system for interviewing. Instead of concentrating on being able to remember algorithms and write them out in a completely non-normal way (white board) we could, instead, give them a very small project to do then have them come in and explain it, walk someone through extending it and / or work through a problem together. You'd get real experience seeing how they write their code, work with others and their ability communicate.

Drilling someone to do tree traversal or various Big-O exercises doesn't exactly come up in the real world. Yeah performance and understanding data structures is important but that's why you give them something real, see what kind of data structure they come up with and why and go from there.

Well at least in my opinion. I've interviewed a lot of people and have been interviewed myself. I've unfortunately haven't been able to gather the data to see how effective my method is BUT I like it a hell of a lot better.

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#99

Post by Retric »

bshlgrs wrote: post #29
alistairSH wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any reason an interviewer should care about syntax, etc? When I interview, I ask for psuedocode - I don't really care what language the interviewee uses, I do care that they can get their point across.

It sort of makes sense. If someone knows a language well, they shouldn't have much trouble writing it syntactically correctly on a whiteboard. Especially in languages which have simpler syntax, like Ruby vs eg Scala.

That's far less true if you use several languages on a regular basis. .size .length .count, which one is used in _? Does it use () after it?

Interviews are often based more on what the interviewer knows than the project / resume.

Now what happens when someone asks about a language that you have not used in 3 years? Well it gets fuzzy. Ramping back up on an old language might take a few hours, but that’s meaningless in terms of a job.

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